1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a bottle mouth polishing apparatus and more precisely, is directed to a bottle mouth top surface polishing apparatus that smoothens the top surface of bottle mouths for glass bottles or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Glass bottles and so on that are formed by materials such as glass or the like are widely used as containers for liquors, pharmaceutical products and cosmetic products, etc., which are sealed by caps after being filled with the liquids. In this case, in order to secure a complete sealed condition to prevent liquid leakage, it is desirous that the glass bottle mouth top surface which contacts the inside surface of the cap, be a smooth flat plane so that the bottle mouth top surface and cap inside surface are in tight contact without interruptions throughout a wide area.
As one example in the case of a glass bottle, the finished condition of the top surface at the bottle mouth, which means that whether the top surface of the bottle mouth is finished to be a smooth flat surface or not becomes one important check point as a good bottle. Accordingly, at the inspection process for produced glass bottles, the finish condition of the top surface at the bottle mouth is an important inspection item which is checked by visual inspection or by machine vision which combines image sensers such as television cameras with an electronic processor to construct an automatic visual inspection system.
On the other hand, such as in the case of beer bottles that are recycled by recollection and washing after the contents are drunk and disposed of, which are repeatedly used, the bottle mouth top surface may easily become the subject of scratch or cracks during the use or in transit, so that it is necessary to inspect the top surface of the bottle mouth increasingly severe to the case of new bottles upon the reuse. Also, from such above described inspection, the bottles that are discovered to have abnormalities in the flat smoothness at the top surface of the bottle mouth are rejected from the production line as faulty products.
According to the conventional practices, there was no concept to aggressively polish the top surface of bottle mouth to be a smooth flat plane in the glass bottle production and at the inspection stages after the production, the bad products that lack a smooth flat plane at the top surface of the bottle mouth, were merely rejected as faulty products. Therefore, it was the practice, at the new bottle production stages to enforce sufficient caution to maintain the smooth flatness at the top surface of bottle mouths, while at the recycled bottle processes, the only remedy to maintain such top surface of bottle mouth smooth and flat was by inspection and rejecting the faulty bottles.
In other words, the concept to aggressively polish the bottle mouth top surfaces in order to secure smooth flat planes under the conventional practices did not exist at the new bottle production as well as the reuse by recycled bottles, so that in both cases there was the task of utilization ratio deterioration with further problems from the stand point of resource protection.